The conclusion of "Employee of the Month" is upon us this week. It continues on Wednesday and wraps on Friday. Which means...

...O-GAWD (Obligatory Guest Artist Webcomic Duration) is almost here! I've just received a few of the guest strips that will be running next week, and they are seriously stellar. It's always a treat to see other artist's take on my characters... even if I am somewhat intimidated by how good they look!

And he was supposed to be Indian, too! (From India, not Native American.) Did you intentionally copy that joke? Or was it a coincidence that you both created the same joke? Or maybe was it subconscious?" -Danny and Matt

Ha! Man, I am so glad you guys pointed this out to me.

I have not seen either Short Circuit in nearly 20 years. (I'd practically forgotten they existed!) But when I was a little kid, I must have watched them both about... oh, a thousand times or so. I bet my folks still have the thoroughly-worn dubbed VHS copies they made for me. (Using two VCRs, baby.)

Even though I had completely forgotten about this scene, it all came flooding back to me the instant you mentioned it. I could practically hear the character's voices in my head. So, while I definitely did not copy the joke intentionally, I think it's safe to assume the resemblance was more than just a coincidence!

Kind of embarrassing to learn how thoroughly those silly movies are ingrained into my subconscious. But these are the kind of realistic flaws that make me seem hip and relatable. Right?

...guys?

"Aaron is my favorite character by far, but I have noticed he was a lot more bad ass in the previous arcs... he seems to have become nerdier. In the past he would have definetly been in on the fight with the Grrbils, but instead Sam left him to do paper work. Is he a ninja or not, man?" -Ezra

Aaron is the same man he always was! He has just been saddled with a lot of responsibilities... some which he resents, and some which he takes very, very seriously.

"Did you pick Mr. Y as the one to live because, since he is mostly white, he doesn't use as much ink to draw as Mr. X?" -Earnest

It's funny... I don't remember thinking about this at all! Even when I was first conceptualizing this story, Mr. Y was always the winner. I don't think Mr. X was ever even considered. I wonder why?

Well, your theory is as good as any. But here's another one. Racism. Think about it.

"I'm making my way through the archives again and I've noticed that you are very thorough in linking old comics for those of us with poor memories. I'm wondering how you keep track of all those old comics. Do you have notes for each one, a massive cross-referenced database or what?" -Corey

Nah! I just scrounge around in the archive manually until I find the relevant comic. But let me put it this way... recalling and locating a particular strip is much easier for the person who spent eight hours of his life drawing it than the person who spent a minute reading it. I would never expect a reader to remember all this crap as thoroughly as I do. (Which is the reason I like to provide the backlinks!)